DV transfer for dummies?

9 Dec 2004 4:24 AM

Steve V

Sorry, I'm sure this has been asked many times... but gathering info on the
web w/ dialup is painful and the local Best Buy and Circuit City sales kids
are clueless.

I just bought a Sony HC20 camcorder (w/ iLINK 4-pin port .. is this the same
as firewire?) and would like to transfer from tape to DVD. I have a Windows
98 system with a regular CD burner (not DVD).

Could you please list, in detail, all the hardware and software I need to
make the transfer with the best quality audio/video? How much should I pay
for each component, and where should I buy them (eBay?).

Thanks!
Steve

30 Dec 2004 7:05 PM

marks542004

First you need to get your video onto the PC. If you don't already
have one you will need a firewire card. Firewire, IEEE 1394 are
essentially the same thing.

You will need an editing program to cut your clips and arrange them,
add titles etc.

You need software to set up and burn your DVD.
If you want a DVD with menus to jump straight to selected scenes you
need a bit better software.

To burn DVD you need a DVD burner.
Note: there is a format for video CD. Since a cd is 700meg as compared
to 4.5 gig for DVD the length of your video is limited. They may not
play in some DVD players.

DVD burner I would look for at Best Buy or Wal-mart superstore. (est
$100)
Capture card search Google. (est($19)
Your dvd burner may have software bundled with it.

******
The big problem you have if you are running Win98 is the capacity of
your system.
You need a big chunk of disk space to store and work on video files.
You need space for the original input file and space for the editing
files and space to render the output.

Most of the software I have seen requires WinXP to run.
Check your system specs carefully before you start.

30 Dec 2004 7:33 PM

marko

Yes, I too think that Win98 is going to be the bigger issue...

http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs_vs_fat.htm

The filesystems readable/writeable by Win98 (FAT32, etc) are not
capable of populating files higher than approx. 4GB. See 'max file
size' in the page above.

Firewire downloads from digital camcorders create files that consume
12GB per hour of video! This is an obvious issue here.